First sight of end to lockdown but... be sensible

IT has become obvious that we might as well write 2020 off as a bad job. No soapbox race, no Ashbourne Festival, no beer and cider festival – and no pubs until at least July. We’re probably going to see out our entire summer behind closed doors.

There were signs of optimism in Boris Johnson’s speech on Sunday but they came laced with a stern warning that we could mess it up quite easily and set ourselves back months.

If the scenes of a crowded Matlock Bath on Saturday are anything to go by, it’s obvious we still have a lot to learn.

Lockdown is being eased, a bit. But it is still clear that staging mass events like the soapbox race would be too much too soon. The prospect of 7,000 people crowding town with no hope of social distancing is unthinkable.

The extra freedom we’ve been given will bring many more people to the Peak District on sunny days, and this will bring its own dangers. We must hope our visitors respect the rules, respect us, and tread carefully.

And we all have a role to play. We need things to happen quickly.

We need the daily death rate to fall and we need the number of new Covid-19 cases to drop just as quickly.

Because, setting aside the tragedy behind every statistic we’re given in the daily briefings for just a moment, Shrovetide is a bit early next year.

We in Ashbourne have something of a deadline. Shrove Tuesday, February 21.

It might seem a long way away off – but it’ll come around quickly enough if we’re still in lockdown in December.

So let’s work towards this local, common goal. Let’s do our bit to get the figures down long before Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.

Let’s ensure 2021 is a year full of celebrations, gatherings and coming together at last.